Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a method of visualizing data. More particularly, the present invention is directed to a data visualization scheme that enables a more clear understanding of the monitoring, analysis and prediction of effects of internal and external events that occur inside and outside of a system.
The analysis of business processes to find and promote efficiencies is an important function in any enterprise. One way to undertake such an analysis is to xe2x80x9cdissectxe2x80x9d business processes, organizations and the roles of personnel. For example, a typical business might include a sales force, a marketing group, technical support personnel, infrastructure, etc., all of which, in a perfect world, should be analyzed on an on-going basis. Many methods have been developed to extract information from people and to try to assemble analytic information so that it makes sense to an analyzer (a person), whereby it is possible to constitute a solution to a problem. Such methods are often designed to detect trends or patterns around the type of collection that, presumably, can help reach answers to problems or identify inefficiencies very quickly. Usually, one tries to develop ways, techniques and methodologies to be able to gather information quickly, identify, for example, ten or fifteen key points that are believed to be important, and based on those points, quickly form and suggest a solution or recommendation.
Early methodologies for gathering information tended to be xe2x80x9ctactical.xe2x80x9d That is to say, tactical, or pointed, questions were posed to personnel such as, xe2x80x9cwhat is the current problem?xe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cwhat do you think you need to do?xe2x80x9d The answers to such questions, however, tend not to provide the information that is really being sought since many business people tend not to think about their environment; they instead tend to think only about their particular job. Accordingly, even though an analysis has been attempted, tactical questions tend not to be useful and the resulting answers are also often equally unuseful. Thus, the xe2x80x9crightxe2x80x9d solution or recommendation is rarely identified because one never really collects enough, or the proper, information on which to base such solutions or recommendations.
Recognizing the deficiencies in prior art methodologies, those skilled in the art have developed ways of trying to create a generalized knowledge base that is designed to help understand where a business is in its lifecycle, where it fits in its environment and what problems it may be having. The particular problem being addressed using this knowledge base could be a communications problems or it could be a problem with purchasing or manufacturing a widget. What the xe2x80x9cproblemxe2x80x9d is is not critical. Instead, the process of data gathering and analysis is what is important.
As an example, steps for analyzing xe2x80x9csellingxe2x80x9d might include: identifying an infrastructure, an operation and a business element. Infrastructure is what runs the business, operation includes the processes within the business, and the business element is what is driving the business, e.g., what the business financials are. From the information obtained, one can extract relevant information that reveals particular aspects and characteristics of the business from which it is possible to begin pinpointing problems and to begin generating a solution.
This type of methodology accumulates knowledge and works well when one company is being analyzed. However, this type of analysis becomes problematic when hundreds or even thousands of companies are analyzed. Specifically, one quickly gets overloaded with information and it becomes impossible to find answers or to find any useful xe2x80x9ccommon denominatorxe2x80x9d type information.
To overcome the problem of data overload, driver/enabler models have been developed. It is well-established that there are fundamental drivers that are inherent in a business, namely, market, competition, technology, shareholders and government. If a true understanding of these five drivers can be achieved, then it is believed that a complete analysis of a business can be more easily acquired. Thus, it is desirable to monitor these drivers every day, and preferably every second of every day, to really know what is driving a company at any point in time.
Assuming it were possible to gather all that information, it is still difficult to appreciate the significance of the data and to appreciate the context in which all of this data exists. In other words, it is difficult to visualize how the drivers or events, both internal and external, affect a business or any other system.
Thus there is a need for a method of visualizing data and the interaction of data with different entities within a complex system, such as a business. The present invention provides a visualization method via which it is possible to gain insight into the monitoring, analysis and prediction of the effects of internal and external events.
More specifically, the present invention provides insight into when xe2x80x9cdriversxe2x80x9d and the timing of driving events affect different entities or functional units of a complex system. In addition, the present invention provides insight into the state or condition of the several entities at the time an event occurs. Further, the present invention provides a method of simulating reactions to drivers and other events.
The foregoing capabilities are made possible by providing a visualization scheme, preferably presented graphically on a computer display, in which a plurality of wheels, each representing a functional unit, entity and/or aspect of a system (such as a business concern), is connected to a virtual communications channel that acts as a common axis for the wheels. The wheels are preferably segmented into several areas that each represent a step in a process. The wheels spin in a predetermined direction around the virtual communications channel, and events and xe2x80x9cdriversxe2x80x9d are monitored as they travel through the virtual communications channel. At the same time, the state or orientation of the wheels is monitored as the events that travel through the communication channel are captured, whereby it is possible to visually synchronize the event and state of any one or any combination of wheels.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method of visualizing data.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method of visualizing the synchronization of events with respect to the state of a process or a particular step in a process.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of visually simulating the transmission of communication through a communications channel and of visually correlating the state of a process when a particular transmission passes a predetermined location.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a method of visualizing a system by representing functional units of the system with rotating or spinning wheels that rotate or spin around a common axis wherein the common axis represents a communications channel.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of visualizing a predictive model.